Two Texas teens have been accused of finding and killing a fellow high school student, after police said they found the duo trying to get rid of the deceased boy's remains.
The unidentified teenagers are currently being detained in alleged connection with the death of Ivan Mejia, 17, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Mejia, who was a senior at Wylie East High School in the Dallas area, is the second student from the school to be killed in the recent past. According the AP, another teenager was also convicted of carrying out the murder in that case.
Police were first called to a wooded region in Garland, located south of Wylie on Saturday, with reports that a car had slid off the highway. Law enforcement officials then caught a glimpse of two boys in the distance, and asked what they were doing.
The duo reportedly told officers they were attempting to dump Mejia's remains.
The boys - who haven't been identified due to their juvenile status - are both juniors at Wylie East. They're currently being held in Collin County juvenile detention and could be up against murder charges, according to Wylie Police Sgt. Donna Valdepena, who spoke with the Associated Press this week.
"This was planned," Valdepena said, adding that Mejia seemed to have been targeted by the boys. "We do have evidence that it was pre-planned."
Police told AP that Mejia was killed behind the school on a deserted road.
17-year-old Enrique Hernandez told the press that he used to attend church services with Mejia, a teen with aspirations to join the Marines. Hernandez said he recalled seeing Mejia proudly donning an ROTC uniform on multiple occasions.
"He had trained to go to the Marines and was awaiting his shipment date," Hernandez told the news agency in an email. "He had previously promised his mom that he would come back from the Marines safely...He had so many people he could help and he tried to help them all."
